Welcome to Part Three of our WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your website into an automated web traffic machine using the WordPress CMS platform.
In Part One of this article series, we described the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, all you have to do is add new content on a regular basis to drive more traffic!)
In Part Two, we discussed critical setup decisions. We helped you understand the best way to get started if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set everything up if you already have a site, and what to do if your site has been built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section of the series, we will discuss the configuration phase of the traffic system. You will learn how a WordPress site should be configured in order to automatically bring visitors simply by regularly adding fresh content on your WordPress site.
WordPress Traffic Automation System – Configuration Phase
Finding ways to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. Businesses are becoming so much more competitive and are exploring every advantage they can to increase their competitiveness online.
Being able to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide you with a huge competitive advantage. For businesses, an expertly configured website gives WordPress users a flying start from the moment their site is launched.
The Configuration Stage Is The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by an expert website builder but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here is a simple way to describe the main difference:
With a WordPress website that has been expertly configured you get a web presence plus online business marketing automation!
(An expertly configured website gives you a professional web presence with a built-in automated online business marketing tool!)
Not only are more steps needed to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special kind of expert knowledge.
To illustrate this here is a joke.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
All is going well in the gizmo manufacturing plant when things suddenly stop working.
No one can figure out what is wrong and so the floor manager decides to call in an expert.
The expert arrives soon afterward and, without saying a word, heads out immediately to the main control box. After staring silently at the schematics for less than 2 minutes, the expert then produces a teeny-weeny hammer and makes a single tap about two inches from the right edge of the unit.
Immediately, everything returns once more to normal.
The floor manager is relieved as he thanks the expert, who then leaves just as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days later, the manager receives a service bill for $5,000.
Furious, the factory manager calls the expert. Why were they expected to pay such a ridiculously high fee for so little time spent delivering such minimal amount of work? He then requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice arrives and is placed in the manager’s in-tray. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive new visitors to their sites.
In the story we’ve just described, how much money did the gizmo factory stand to lose when the equipment ground to a halt and no one on the business had the expertise required to fix it? Did the expert in our story not have every right to ask to be compensated fairly for years spent acquiring the knowledge and expertise that allowed him to quickly assess and avert a very serious crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a web site configured so all you ever had to do is publish content to it and search engines, social followers from Facebook and Twitter and dozens of other online properties would be automatically notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of attracting new visitors to your website?)
Although experts often make difficult solutions look simple, it rarely is that simple or easy when you are trying to figure things out.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site involves more than installing a website and configuring a few settings. It also requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which plugins you need to install to add specific functionalities to your site.
- Which accounts need to be set up to achieve specific outcomes
- Which internal and external settings need to be configured in order to ensure that things will work as envisioned, etc.
(Generating new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires knowledge and expertise)
Although this stage of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem technically challenging, it can be quite complicated. It’s not as simple as installing and configuring a plugin, clicking on a button or two … it’s all this and much more.
The configuration phase involves the integration of different components including your web server, your website, and various external sites and services …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring some settings in WordPress)
If we were to create a simplified flowchart of the activities involved in the configuration process, it would look something like this …
(A simplified flowchart showing all the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s take a look at these areas in more detail.
Web Hosting
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your web-hosting account for website installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is fine-tuning settings and options in your web-hosting account that affect how you will handle web traffic …
(In the configuration phase, your web server settings need to be checked for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the traffic you may attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, security threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This area of the configuration process, therefore, is all about planning for bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This can include things like server-level spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring your domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After fine-tuning your web server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step is to set up and configure a number of external sites and services.
Configuring External Services
The idea behind adding external sites is that all of your content gets published to one central location (your site) and from there, it then gets distributed automatically to other parts of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
After adding these external services to your configuration, content linking back to your site will be automatically posted to search, social and aggregator sites. Your content will be given additional exposure to new sources of traffic and new audiences.
Some external sites and services will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress site’s settings to help save time and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, here are just some of the accounts you will need to have set up:
Google Search Console
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Webmasters lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for automatic page indexing, and provides you with a range of essential data, tools and reports about your website.
Once your account and site details with Google Webmasters have been set up, you can use this information to integrate and automate traffic settings in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s traffic results, SEO, user engagement, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrals, etc.
After setting up your Google Analytics account, you can add tracking information to WordPress via a simple plugin and send data automatically to many other online applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. Once your account has been set up, you can use the details to integrate and automate traffic settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part 2, WordPress offers both a hosted and a self-hosted option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress version if you plan to grow a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, which a number of WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate these features into your automated web traffic system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media Sites
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media pages and attract new traffic to your site)
You will need your social media accounts set up in order to integrate these with your traffic generation system.
After setting up and configuring everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and attract new visitors to your site.
You should have pages set up with all the main social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
There are many social sites you can You can syndicate your content to lots of social sites. You don’t need to go crazy, just choose the ones that will work well with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we will look at some of these tools in more detail further below and in the Automation phase).
(There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can syndicate your content to. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Services, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online technology platforms and content aggregators that can serve as secondary-level traffic generation sources. Some are free or provide free levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans.
For example, here is a content aggregator that lets you add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is a news aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your RebelMouse website.
There are various solutions that can be added to your own web traffic blueprint. Please contact us if you would like to explore some of these further and discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up third-party service accounts, it’s time to configure your site.
WordPress Configuration
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to make sure that your global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
WordPress Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings section that allows you to modify your site’s global settings …
(WordPress admin menu – Settings)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains a powerful and frequently overlooked traffic notification system …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings)
As described below the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have specifically chosen to discourage search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically ping the list of update services entered into the Update Services text box
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, this section includes only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress …
(Notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress!)
Download A Comprehensive List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site!
Click the link below to download a comprehensive list of reliable and authoritative ping services for your WordPress site or blog:
Download A List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site
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Note: If you need help setting up the list of ping services on your site, we recommend using a professional web services provider. You can find professional WordPress service providers in our WordPress Services Directory.
Reading
This section affects how your content gets seen by readers when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can influence traffic. For example, choosing to display the full text vs a summary of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could play a part in someone’s choice to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your site to view the rest of the content from a partial feed, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
As far as traffic is concerned, however, the main setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is ticked or not.
Typically, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows WordPress to automatically notify all the update services you have listed whenever new posts are published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings Screen)
Discussion Settings
Although the settings in this section are mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to sites linked to from your articles, and to allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks). This can work for you, but it can also drive bad traffic in the form of SPAM comments …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings)
Permalink Settings
Your Permalink settings enable WordPress to display posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalinks)
Here are some of the ways your post permalinks can be configured …
(Configuring permalinks)
We have created a detailed tutorial on using permalinks here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Configuring WordPress Traffic Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that help to add just about every kind of functionality to your site, including many plugins that improve traffic generation.
Let’s take a brief look at examples of plugin categories and plugins that can help to increase traffic
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for dealing with the effects of both good traffic and bad traffic. No web site is immune from being attacked by hackers.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress blog invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and botnets.
For more details, go here:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by making your web pages more indexable …
(WordPress SEO plugins help increase traffic by improving your website’s SEO)
Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your website’s search engine optimization. When properly configured, this plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google and Bing to index, it also gives you control over how your content is presented in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing your visitors to share your content with members of their social communities can help drive significant traffic to your site, especially if you post great content that adds value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing buttons to your website using free or inexpensive plugins)
There are loads of free or inexpensive social sharing plugins available for WordPress.
Most social plugins allow you to select which social sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some social sharing plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content which visitors can unlock by liking your page.
WordPress – Traffic Features In Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that can help grow your site’s traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring layout and design elements of your website, many themes also include built-in features that let you improve search optimization and site navigation structure for better indexing, add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes like Graphene (a free theme) come with built-in traffic optimization features)
With a number of quality themes, adding social sharing features to your website is as easy as clicking a few buttons to configure your options and enable the function …
(Many WordPress themes provide users with built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
WordPress Traffic Automation – Other Aspects To Consider
Last (but by no means least) in the WordPress traffic blueprint configuration process, are the components that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include the following:
Compliance Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for a growth in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only for how to deal with good and unwanted traffic but also for all the situations that can hurt your business when more and more people find and begin to visit your website.
If you make money online (or plan to), you need to ensure that your website is compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate how business online is done.
(Does Your Site Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
If you need help understanding why it’s important to have a compliant website, refer to this article:
Categories & Post Tags
Tags & categories help search engines classify and index your web pages, which helps you get more traffic.
(WordPress categories help to improve your site’s SEO, which helps to increase traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, your website’s post tags and post categories should be set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Stage.
When configuring your site to automate and improve web traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post tags and post categories have been correctly set up to deliver optimal results.
Add A Site Map
A visitor site map that displays all of your site’s pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external sites discover your website content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for web traffic too!)
Note: An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are two different things. An HTML site map is a web page that links to all other content on your site, while an XML sitemap is mostly just a bunch of code that only search engine bots can read. Although search engines like Google will index your pages just using an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site results in increased traffic.
404 Page Not Found – Don’t Forget This!
When online visitors enter the wrong URL or click on a link pointing to an incorrect destination on your site, they are greeted with an error page …
(A WordPress 404 Error Page)
Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost. …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 page can be set up on your server, there are several WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint: Configuration Process – Summary
Once your website or blog has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do then to generate traffic is post web content on a regular basis.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, is quite involved and elaborate , requiring the configuration and integration of different components and external web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of expertise required to perform this phase of the traffic automation process can take some website developers a long time to acquire.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the aspects of the process that can be automated. This step is covered in the next section of our series.
This is the end of Part 3
To continue reading this article, click here:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials aimed at helping you learn how to grow your business with a WordPress website and proven marketing methods that are easy to implement.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum
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